Heika:Thanksgiving date with Texas gives TCU another chance to show they belong

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Michael Ainsworth/Staff Photographer

Mike Davis, WR: What started out as another inconsistent season for Davis has suddenly blossomed into a breakout year. Over his last five games, Davis has accounted for 574 yards and five TDs through the air. He's been good for at least one gamebreaking play a week -- he's had five catches of 40 or more yards and is averaging 22.1 yards per catch over that five-week stretch -- and he's showing a knack for winning jump balls, which means he doesn't even have to be open for Ash to look his way. Davis will be the most important man on the UT offense for TCU to keep in check come Thursday.

“I feel that’s what we’ve gone through in all
of the conferences we’ve been in — from people telling us we don’t play anybody
to people telling us we don’t belong in the Rose Bowl,” Patterson said Tuesday
as he prepared for a showdown with the Longhorns. “I think it’s like most of us
average-looking guys and our dating lives when we were younger — ‘You shouldn’t
be going out with her, you shouldn’t even ask.’”

But Patterson has asked, and he said he’s been
pretty happy with the results. Yes, in its first Big 12 season, TCU is 6-4
overall and 3-4 in conference. But the Frogs have won at West
Virginia and suffered a close loss to Kansas
State, so beating Texas is not out of the question.

What’s more, TCU has done this while playing a
lineup filled with freshmen.

And while he respects the challenge of facing
a historically strong program in Texas,
Patterson said he didn’t want to throw too many roses at the feet of his good
friend Mack Brown and the Longhorns.

“You have to be careful saying they started
out better,” Patterson said, ever wary of creating perceived excuses that could
lower the bar and allow his players to accept losing or moral victories.
“They’re a tremendous university with a tremendous football program and
tremendous athletes, but we feel we have some of those same attributes. Every
place has its pluses and its minuses. There are a lot of things we have at TCU
that the University
of Texas doesn’t have,
and that’s one of the reasons Gary Patterson is still at TCU.”

That’s a strong yet subtle comment for
Patterson, who has had the opportunity to leave for a bigger program. Instead,
he has helped turn the Frogs into contenders, and he will use a Thursday night
national spotlight to take his recruiting effort up one more notch and try to
push the program even higher.

“It’s an unbelievable opportunity,” he said. “Texas has an
unbelievable program, and if you want to be the best, you have to beat the
best. There have been several teams that have won the conference title, but the
general feeling is that if you want to win the Big 12 title consistently, you
have to go through Austin or Norman [Oklahoma].”

So with a week off to get healthy, and with
redshirt freshman quarterback Trevone Boykin learning every game, Patterson
will take his troops to Austin
and try to get another Big 12 win, all the while trying to earn a little more
respect.

“What you have to be able to do is prove it on
the field,” Patterson said. “We’re not where we need to be right now — 6-4 and
3-4 in the conference — but we have been in every ballgame. We have to be
patient … but we have to be able to keep our goals high.”

And the goal of beating the 8-2 Longhorns
seems like a pretty fun challenge.

“To be a part of the Thanksgiving game in Texas, that’s a big
deal,” Patterson said.

Sort of like dating the homecoming queen.

Run stoppers

Texas is expected to unleash
a multipronged running attack that features freshman Johnathan Gray, but TCU
has by far the best rushing defense in the Big 12:

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